by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent There’s a reason Poor Things starring Best Oscar Actress nom Emma Stone with 11 Oscar nods charts so high among big movies, Oppenheimer with 13 nods, Barbie with eight, and Killers of the Flower Moon at 10 nominations. After #metoo and #timesup, we are officially in the Post-Ingenue Era in Hollywood. Gone is the unsophisticated often preyed-upon female lead. And this is likely why Barbie’s Margot Robbie missed the Best Actress cut th...

‘‘Barbie’’ directed by Greta Gerwig film review © Lalit Rao (FIPRESCI) 10.08.2023   Audiences and critics will remember ‘‘Barbie’’ for a long time as a light-hearted film that came at a time when the entire world was going gaga over big films such as Oppenheimer and MI-dead reckoning part one. It is said that most children play with toys in their childhood. However, there are also a lot of people who never got to play with toys especi...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent  Something Emma Stone says in an off-hand way when she and Ryan Gosling pick up the Outstanding Performers of the Year from Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) on Friday night really sticks. Seated beside Gosling, her co-star and co-nominee for the acting Oscars in LA LA LAND, Stone plays with the 20’s fringe on her dress, then offers this insight: “movies make us feel less alone, I guess, that’s what they...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent When the Oscars streamed the announcements for the first time in their history this morning, anybody in the world got a glimpse at who AMPAS deemed Oscar-worthy for the 89th Academy Awards. The net result? You get emails from everybody and your mother about how right, or wrong your predictions were — maybe not the result the Academy expected, but announcing online is here to stay. Meanwhile, what a line-up, and let’s create the hashta...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Oh, to ruin Award Season… but isn’t that what we’re on earth for? To have our dreams shattered but then our lives uplifted, if only in the movies? Enter LA LA LAND, a singing, dancing act of pure wish fulfillment starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Wait, a musical? Don’t be fooled. This is classic cinema updated with today’s angst. Stone says “the idea of this really modern story of two artists and ...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent Steve Carell tells a story about working with Vanessa Redgrave in Foxcatcher, the movie for which he is Oscar nominated, and in this one scene he reveals a lot about actors. It also reveals why the Academy tapped Carell, and he has been named Performer of the Year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. To set the mood, Steve Carell’s bad son, heir John E. Du Pont, tries to hand his matriarch, Mrs. Du Pont (Redgrave) a wrestling...

One of the most highly-anticipated films of the film festival is Ryan Gosling's directorial debut, Lost River. With screenings at 14h, 22h, and press screenings in between, the film gained hype before and on the day of it's premiere. The crowd outside the 22h screening was a large percentage 20-somethings and younger, fans of Gosling's previous works and of the actor himself.  Gosling said a few short words on stage next to the stars of the film, including Christina Hendrix and...

By Adrienne Papp In a star-studded gala ceremony, the International Press Academy celebrated the distinguished accomplishments of artists in thirty-eight categories last Sunday night at the 18th Annual Satellite™ Awards held at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City.  "12 Years a Slave" received Motion Picture and Director honors, while "Dallas Buyers Club's" Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, and Jared Leto w...

Only at a film festival can you experience the underworlds of Cape Town and Bangkok and the beauty of North Korea. Tourist brochures paint a very different picture. My last day at Diff started with a doccie about the Nice Time Kids, a gang on the Cape Flats. The Devil's Lair takes viewers into the home of one of the gang leaders where death can come at any moment and his wife also lives with this reality. There are no more screenings at DIFF. Ryan Gosling can be seen in Only God Forgive...

  Ryan Gosling, the nova hot actor, is a native Canadian and the biggest film festival in his country is indulging in a bit of Gosling-fever. The actor, who grew up in southern Ontario, appears in two high profile films at the Toronto International Film Festival, which opens on September 8. THE IDES OF MARCH, a behind-the-scenes political thriller directed by George Clooney, gives its biggest role to Gosling’s young press secretary, who does all things legal and illegal to protect the...

By Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent   OMG. Can Ryan Gosling do anything wrong on screen? DAY 2 at LAFF, his movie DRIVE, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, unspooled to a packed house, almost SRO (standing room only) with a crush of fans waiting to see the power house Canadian-born actor and cast.  New star Carey Mulligan, Christina Hendricks (AMC's "Mad Man"), Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Bryan Cranston, and Oscar Issac were there in support of the ultra-vio...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent  AFM Fin Conference: Moguls Draw a Crowd "Expected to be released in theatres in 2011" might be the most ominous phrase coming out of the 31st American Film Market, which closes on Nov. 10. It's the expectations of buyers and sellers that indicate we're in a worldwide down economy, with many expecting the worst. Not so if you are Adrien Brody, steeped in Oscar potential; and even if your film is WRECKED, someone will buy it...

After the screening of Blue Valentine on Friday night, Producer Jamie Patricof gave us a little background on how long it has taken to get this film to the screen. He’s been on board for 9 of the 12 years Derek Cianfance (Brother Tide) was in the midst of both writing  and directing this wonderfully, heart-wrenching depiction of a couple learning each other, needing each other and then needing different things and hurting each other.In the first incarnation of the screenplay Cianfrance had ...

I've never seen The Notebook.  I know.  That's bad right?  An alleged film connoisseur who writes a blog about films and never has seen The Notebook.  But I must admit, I've seen just about every other Ryan Gosling film made. My favorite is the film Half Nelson where he plays the crack-addicted school teacher who begins an unlikely friendship with one of his students.  I also loved his work in United States of Leland where he had the opportunity to work with the likes of Kevi...

    Before screen actor and Indie film favorite Ryan Gosling even got out of the black car delivering him to the Lobero Theatre, the girls were outside waiting. With DVD cases in hand (many from The Notebook), other paraphernalia to collect a signature, and cameras overhead to snap an image as the heartthrob exited to step onto the red carpet. to see a gallery of images from the red carpet, view:http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=847&event=08SBIFF_goslingIt was a night of scr...

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival will honor Ryan Gosling with the first Independent Award at the 23rd edition of the Fest, which runs January 24-February 3, 2008, it was announced today by SBIFF Executive Director Roger Durling. The Independent Award, an award SBIFF established to recognize an actor who has made a significant and unique contribution to independent film, will be presented to Ryan Gosling on Tuesday, January 29, 2008. “In my opinion, Ryan has become the best ac...

 Wednesday, October 17---------In this busy theatrical film season, as many as a dozen films premiere every Friday at local multiplexes. Many films that would benefit from a slow build up and the essential qualities of  "word of mouth" fail to ignite fire on their intial weekend openings and often disappear without a trace in a scant week or two. In the ferocious environment of theatrical distribution, if one's opening weekend is below expectations, the results can be disasterous. Di...