2016 Producers Guild nominees: ‘Spotlight,’ ‘The Big Short’, “Mad Max: Fury Road” among the field

By Armando

Historically, the Producer Guild Awards (PGA) is considered a strong indicator of how Oscar best picture will turn out. Consider this metric: over 80% of PGA nominees have become Oscar nominees since 2009.

However, it has been a wide-open awards season so far. Aside from the consensus building around Spotlight, Oscar front-runners this year seems more difficult to determine.

This year, PGA keeps it interesting with the surprise inclusion of a few well-reviewed films — the artificial intelligence thriller “Ex Machina”, and the border drama “Sicario”.

Here is the list of the PGA’s film nominations. The awards will be given out Jan. 23.

“The Big Short”
“Bridge of Spies”
“Brooklyn”
“Ex Machina”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“The Revenant”
“Sicario”
“Spotlight”
“Straight Outta Compton”

Winners will be announced on Jan. 23 during a ceremony in Los Angeles.

Full list below:
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2016 Golden Globe nominations

By Armando

What a lovely day. Following last week’s surprise announcement from the National Board of Review naming Mad Max: Fury Road as the best film of 2015, George Miller and company received another unexpected nods from yet another Oscar precursor: Golden Globe lavished the movie with Best Picture and Best Director nominations.

Below is the full list:

Best Picture, Drama

Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight

Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
The Big Short
Joy
The Martian
Spy
Trainwreck

Best Director

Todd Haynes, Carol
Alejandro Innaritu, The Revenant
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Ridley Scott, The Martian

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‘The Assassin’ Tops Sight & Sound’s Best Films Of 2015

Shu Qi as Nie Yinniang, the assassin. (Nie Yinniang 2015)


Shu Qi as Nie Yinniang, the assassin. (Nie Yinniang 2015)

Sight & Sound’s Top 20 Films of 2015

1. The Assassin
2. Carol
3. Mad Max Fury Road
4. Arabian Nights
5. Cemetery of Splendor
6. No Home Movie
7. 45 Years
8. Son of Saul
9. Amy
10.Inherent Vice
11.Anomalisa
12.It Follows
13.Phoenix
14.Girlhood
15.Hard to Be a God
16.Inside Out
17.Tangerine
18.Jafar Panahi’s Taxi
19.Horse Money
20.The Look of Silence

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Steve Jobs: Film Review

By Armando Inquig

‘Steve Jobs’ depicts the man as a flawed yet brilliant innovator: a salesman who expects employees to meet his standards, and a creative and artistic mind obsessed with product design.

Starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs, the movie is structured like a three-act play. Each act focuses on a pivotal product launch: the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT (also known as The Cube) in 1988, and the iMac in 1998. Each act is preceded by flashbacks or a series of TV and news montages.

Just before Jobs takes the stage for each product launch, he’s confronted by various figures from his past. These include his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan (Katherine Waterston), Lisa, a daughter he once denied was his, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Apple CEO John Scully who played a role in Jobs’s dismissal, and original Mac team member Andy Hertzfeld. Through these interactions, his exasperated marketing executive Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslet) consistently supports him, striving to maintain focus amidst the distractions that always seem to surface at the most inopportune moments.

While the film’s structure offers an intriguing approach, it leaves the characterization of the title character feeling unsatisfying and inconsistent. The movie doesn’t delve deeply into his history as an adopted child, omits key aspects of his professional relationship with Wozniak, and the reference to the invention of the iPad—shown as Jobs reacts to his daughter’s use of a portable cassette player—comes off as forced. Given the numerous recent portrayals of Jobs, this film fails to provide fresh insight.

The movie reaches its pinnacle in the third act, set in 1998 before the iMac launch, as Jobs reconciles with his daughter. Here, Fassbender truly captures the essence of Jobs, closely resembling the tech icon’s familiar image. This segment is a pleasure to watch.

Aaron Sorkin’s script provides a riveting, humorous, and captivating glimpse behind the scenes of Steve Jobs during pivotal product launches. However, it doesn’t match the depth, purpose, or impact of his work on ‘The Social Network’.

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Gotham Season 2: What we know so far

Season two of Fox’s “Gotham” will premiere later this month.

By Armando

Fox has been releasing promo materials the past few weeks as we head into Gotham’s second season premiere later this month. Judging from these promos, it appears that Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock will be busier than ever as Gotham’s villains old and new begin to rise to power.

Star Ben McKenzie recently revealed on EW that the show’s story arcs will be more serialized in it’s treatment of villains, as opposed to season 1 wherein new villains were revealed and disposed of in the same episode.

Here’s the official synopsis that Fox released to go along with the announcement of the premiere date.

“The stakes are higher than ever as Gotham explores the origin stories of some of the most ambitious and depraved Super Villains, including The Riddler, The Joker and Mr. Freeze, and Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) uncovers more secrets from his father’s past.”

A new promo video can be seen below:

“This is not a red herring,” writer/producer Bruno Heller told E! Online in February. “It’s the beginning of the story of how the Joker came to be, how the Joker was created, where he came from, who he is. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Cameron Monaghan is the Joker. He might be.”

And to fans who have been waiting for Gotham’s season 1 Blu-ray, all 22 episodes will be available on Tuesday, September 8th in glorious 1080p. Additionally, it will also be available for streaming on Netflix beginning September 21st, the same day season 2 premieres on Fox. The 4-disc season 1 on blu-ray will include special features that will not be available via streaming services.

“Gotham” Season 2 premieres Monday, Sept. 21, on Fox at 8 p.m. EDT.

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Delcourt Group Debuts In English On ComiXology

More Than 150 Delcourt Group Titles To Be Released Exclusively by ComiXology

July 6th, 2015 New York, NY/ Paris, France Delcourt Group, the leading independent comic book publisher in France, took a big step in their global expansion today with the debut of an exclusive line of English language digital-first comics on comiXology, the revolutionary cloud-based digital comics platform. This major publishing program premieres this month with three of the bestselling titles published in France, including The Curse of the Wendigo, which was illustrated by artist Charlie Adlard, best known for his collaboration with Robert Kirkman on The Walking Dead, and Come Prima by Alfred, the graphic novel which won the Prix du Meilleur Album at the 2014 Angoulême International Comics Festival. Announced in advance of San Diego Comic Con 2015, the initiative calls for more than 150 acclaimed Delcourt titles to be published over the next 12 months exclusively through comiXology.

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