ASC NOMINEES - THE SILENCE IS BROKEN!

To celebrate Silence's richly-deserved nomination from the American Society of Cinematographers, I post a picture of Lion. Very happy to note the former film making the cut here, and the same for James Laxton's lovely work on Moonlight. But I figure that both he and Greig Fraser will make way for Hail, Caesar! and Live by Night at this point when Oscar nominations are announced. Good to see the Spotlight Award now expanded to four nominees. The 4th of February is the official date for the 31st annual ASC Outstanding Achievement awards.

2016 ASC Award Theatrical Nominees

Greig Fraser (Lion)

James Laxton (Moonlight)

Rodrigo Prieto (Silence)

Linus Sandgren (La La Land)

Bradford Young (Arrival)

2016 ASC Spotlight Award Nominees

Lol Crawley (The Childhood of a Leader)

Gorka Gomez Andreu (House of Others)

Ernesto Pardo (Tempestad)

Juliette van Dormael (My Angel)

2016 OSCARS MAKEUP SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Academy's make-up branch is moving into slightly new territory this year, though you'd hardly know it by observing their seven-strong shortlist. For those in the know, this branch fucking loves Mel Gibson films, yet his Oscar-hyped Hacksaw Ridge is absent from this list. These seven will become three, the sole existing category with fewer than five nominees, on the 24th of January, when nominations in all categories are announced. And these seven are...

Deadpool

The Dressmaker

Florence Foster Jenkins

Hail, Caesar!

A Man Called Ove

Star Trek Beyond

Suicide Squad

REVIEW - HAIL, CAESAR! (ETHAN COEN AND JOEL COEN)

A featherweight farce from the Coen brothers that seems to spite its own best qualities, Hail, Caesar! is a most dysfunctional feature - remarkably so, and regrettably so. It burgeons over with inspiration, such that Ethan and Joel almost appear afraid of the potential consequences of relenting to the demands of any one particular component, and proceed instead to waffle on with something else. There's trepidation to their approach here, papered over with political intrigue that's second nature to these boys, and whose aggressive intellectualism only reconfigures the rest of the film's flippancy as fluff. And yet Hail, Caesar! thrives on this dichotomous side to its character, procuring strange suspense at each juncture, whether the film will veer right or left, good or bad, dead funny or deadly serious. The skill in the screenplay shows up in superb characterisations from a brilliant ensemble, relishing their withering one-liners with flair as fleet-footed as Channing Tatum, whose choreographed sequence is among the film's finest. And there's plenty more to find in Hail, Caesar!, from a wondrous recreation of an old aquatic picture, to virtually every single scene featuring the excellent Alden Ehrenreich, harnessing a level of comedic motivation he's never before even had the chance to hint at. Ehrenreich and his co-stars keep the film afloat, as the Coens themselves threaten to sink it - even their most permissible impulses, such as the studio sheen of the visual scheme, or the inherent ephemerality of the concept, don't quite fit together as flush as they surely should. Hail, Caesar! fully intends to be disposable; it's a slight, but certain disappointment that it's as easy to dispose of as this.

ALDEN EHRENREICH AND RALPH FIENNES IN NEW HAIL, CAESAR! TRAILER

The new trailer for the Coen brothers' Hail, Caesar! is even better than the first one. It's tempting, in any way you think about it (thank you, movie gods, for the gift that is Alden Ehrenreich). It's funny and fabulous in equal measure. It's sure to be remembered as one of the best trailers of the year, for a film that's sure to be remembered as one of the best features of the year... surely. Out in North America on the 5th of February and in the UK on the 4th of March wtf.

FIRST OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR THE COENS' HAIL, CAESAR!

So Ethan and Joel Coen have a new film coming out. Remember those other months of the year? Remember the way the cinemas don't just shut down during those months? Yeh, well that's where we're set to stand with Hail, Caesar!, which Universal has set for a 5th of February bow in the US (26th of February in the UK), proof that Universal dgaf about the Oscars because lbr they rly don't need to, and that nor do the Coen brothers, not after what happened to Inside Llewyn Davis... Look for this to screen at the Berlin Film Festival next year too.