The basu! Guide to the Movies

#EurovisionSongContestTheStoryOfFireSaga Good, clean minor-Ferrell-being-Ferrell fun. But, man, McAdams(and her own singing, assisted[#SinginInTheRain-style🤷‍♀️?] by #MollySanden) totally steals the show…and movie😌 And good luck getting that earworm #Husavik out of your head! Nice work by (desi)co-composer Kotecha👏 Speaking of…are they gonna do DVD extras with the full performances? Oh wait…nevermind…future of entertainment and all that…🤗 PS. Wait, is this Will's first #Oscars-nominated movie?! Wha? No noms for…#Anchorman?! #Elf?! #TalladegaNights?! #StepBrothers?!?!??!! Not even #ANightAtTheRoxbury…for shame, for shame…😭 - - - #DavidDobkin #SavanKotecha #RachelMcAdams #WillFerrell #PierceBrosnan #DanStevens #MelissanthiMahut #OlafurDarriOlafsson #DemiLovato #GrahamNorton #Eurovision #EurovisionSongContest #Iceland @eurovision @@netflix

RIP #GeorgeSegal One of my favourite actors, always loved seeing him in *any*thing (film, TV, stage[!]) as *any*one (lead, supporting, drama, comedy, etc. etc. etc.). Growing up, he was another one of those names bandied about with the greats (oooh, GeorgeSegal…GeorgeSegal…), and then when I finally saw him in…Look Who's Talking(don't judge!), I was like, wait, that's GeorgeSegal?! He's funny, not, you know, great "thespian" from on yonder that my young brain had been conditioned to expect. Ah, but you see, such was the folly of youth. He was a *great* thespian, able to deploy that trademark effortless charm(TEC) to incredible effect, in a head*spinning* array of roles and genres. I mean, look at the run he went on in the 1970s: the directors (Altman, Lumet, Nichols et al.), the leading ladies (Fonda, Hawn, Jackson et al.), the costars (Redford, Gould, [the other😏]Fonda). Some would say the 80s were a bit of a comedown, but c'mon that movie with

#ZackSnydersJusticeLeague 😵 Good, clean maximal-epic superhero fun! A movie so, uh, *max*imal the epilogue is an *epic* half-hour…so epic-logue, then 😂? G*d bless Snyder giving it his customary turn-it-up-to-eleven maximal effort for... no pay…wha😳?! Millions of agents suddenly cried out in terror! Last we left it, #JusticeLeague was destroying #DC, and now in the brave new digital streaming future (ya know, of the make-your-own kind🤣) it's risen from the proverbial ashes and created a home from such cinematic ash as corporate overlord dreams are made of…or sumthin'🤷‍♀️ Speaking of Corporate, I guess #Marvel's not the only one good at creating an infinite CU, and like Feige, Snyder had the, ahem, cojones to have the kids take over for the A-listers and let the backbenchers shine. And yo, time travel!, so Flashpoint Paradox... see DC's getting the hang of this whole seeding-future-CU-installations thing😼! Speaking of backbenchers, Quicksilver, er

#Ammonite Really moving film, that, like its titular, er fossils, right?, once you get past its sharp, weather-beaten exterior, you'll be rewarded with what you find at its central emotional core. Sadly, the film was unfairly overlooked due to the unfair, reductive comparisons to #PortraitOfALadyOnFire, which is too bad, man, too bad indeed. Much credit to the awesome sound design and the bone-chilling cinematography (it is the English seaside, after all🥶). Credit, of course, to the supporting cast too: Jones, Shaw, Secareanu, McArdle. But, wow, Ronan & Winslet, perfectly at odds, perfectly matched, perfectly wonderful. Give Winslet so much credit, turning in one fiercely, committed performance after another, and, sadly, without any of the #Oscar scenery-chewing that gets one #Oscars nods. Too bad, man, just too bad… PS. What a great, great ending! - - - #FrancisLee #StephaneFontaine #JohnnieBurn #KateWinslet #SaoirseRonan #GemmaJones #FionaShaw #AlecSeca

RIP #YaphetKotto Another one of my all-time favourite love-that-guy character actors, who should've been given many more opportunities, but, boy did he make the *most* of what he was given. I'm guessing I discovered him in Alien(there was a mix-up at the DC, in space no can hear you scream?, uh, no, I think they heard me pretty well that night!), and ever since then, every time he popped up on screen, I was like, dude, I love that guy. And he always delivered, no? That slow-burn look, those intimidating eyes, that overwhelming screen presence, even without any histrionics, he had you in the palm of his hand. Maybe he got typecast a bit (Sam Jackson before Sam Jackson?), but he never phoned it in, and when he was given the chance to spread his wings, did he spread them high and wide. PS. Homicide! Good lord, every time I managed to watch it in those pre-DVR times I was like, yo!, this is really good, but the critical and popular collective shrug with which it was m

#OneNightInMiami Inspirational stuff…from Powers😇 To decide to embark upon an entirely new and entirely risky career well past Hollywood's usual sell-by age(….and, uh, race), and then end up with not one, but two, #Oscar frontrunners in the *same* year…in two *wildly* different genres…man, there's hope for us all(…well, for those who can write as well as he does😏)! Great cast, and, yeah, the lead quartet is aces. Those are some mighty big shoes to fill…Denzel & Big Willie…nah, I keed, I keed😜. These are four of the biggest midcentury historical figures, no?, and to have the guts to try to portray them in an age where everything is picked apart, and to portray them during a pivotal point in mainstreaming the Civil Rights struggle(I'll need to check with TBH on that one, my knowledge of history is, well…ya know…🙄), kudos to them all, especially the always great Hodge* and kid Goree who sorta steals the show from right under his better-known scene partners. Go

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #MalcolmX (1992) In a word:😳! Remember when, *back* in the day, those "X" hats, and *every*one wanted one(did Sallu have one? but of course he did😂!)? I don't think it was entirely clear to us, half a world away, what the X even was for(but, in retrospect, definitely a lot cooler than Phil Jackson's XI🙄). But, thanks to the late, *great* Barry Norman(🙏), I found out what that X was for, and the clips he showed, all of which I could not understand the context around(and probably still don't🤗), were *seared* into mind. And, d*mn, Barry was right, the movie is quite *something*! Right from that opening, the "Patton Flag," the Rodney King video(still shocking), the giant "X", and then three-and-a-half hours later, there's no question that you're in the hands of an American *epic* directed by an American *master*! Man, is this thing an assault on *all* your senses, slapping

#Nomadland The one movie to rule all of #AwardsSeason! Give it *all* the #Oscars now and let's call it a day! Man, Zhao's rocketship of a directorial career, the fastest rising indie-to-biggie this side of Chazelle-Coogler, will be studied in Hollywood film schools for years to come! Editing, Producing, Writing, Directing – don't look now but she could give Cuaron a run for his #Oscar movie come 25 April! And, I don't think I've seen the DP-Prod Designer double-bill before. Kudos to Richards for his epic-intimate lensing, with just the right touches of swirling Chivo-Malick(you know what they say about too much of a good thing😼)! Look, McDormand is stellar, would you expect anything else?, and really balances her trademark fierceness with a gentle openness that invites the audience in in solidarity, not stand back in the usual awe. And speaking of gentle openness, does anyone do that better than the great Strathairn? Give the man a bunch of awards alrea