In Lieu of the Supporting Actress Smackdown...

by Eric Blume

This too-short Oscar season has all of us firing on all cylinders here at The Film Experience, so sadly we can't engage in a full Supporting Actress Smackdown this week. (The series will return soon though)  In its absence, and to encourage hearing from all of you, Nathaniel has asked me to submit my personal Smackdown ballot and let the chips fall where they may...

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The Cinematic Redemption of Amy March

by Cláudio Alves

Greta Gerwig's Little Women is a bold adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic in more ways than one. Structurally, it shatters the novel's chronology, making past and present, childhood and adulthood, talk to each other in a dialogue of echoes and rhymes. For instance, when Jo loses a sister in the wintery coldness of the present, Gerwig marries the moment to the memory of another kind of sisterly loss, when a wedding in warm colors was a harbinger of future loneliness for the heroine. Another element that makes this new adaptation so radically different from the previous ones is its treatment of Jo's sisters. No longer are Meg, Beth, and Amy March relegated to the periphery of the text. This 19th-century classic is called Little Women, after all, not Little Woman.

When it comes to its portrayal of Amy, the novel's most condemned character, the 2019 film is of particular innovation. We could almost say this Little Women redeems Amy March after centuries of villainizing her…

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Team Experience reactions #2: Final questions from today's nominations

We've polled Team Experience one last time today to answer the following three questions to complete our Oscar Nomination Day reactions (apart from the podcast which is going up soon). We hope you'll chime in too.

1. Which nomination are you happiest about?
   
   
2. Which is the strongest category and which is the weakest? 
   
   
3. Nominees always release totally generic statemetns about being "truly honored". But which nominee would you most like to have been a fly on the wall to watch their totally authentic reactions/conversations this morning. 

Ready? You'll hear their answers after the jump...

WHICH NOMINATION MADE YOU HAPPIEST?

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Team Experience Oscar Reaction #1: Odes to the Fallen!

We've polled Team Experience to answer the following two questions and we hope you'll chime in too.

 

1. Which omission most upset you? Sing your ode to the fallen!
   
   
2. Which nominee/nominees would absolutely kill a moody commissioned short film about you and your reactions / feelings on Oscar nomination day? Tell us all about it. 

Let's begin.

WHICH OMISSION MOST UPSET YOU?

CHRIS FEIL: Did the acting branch not get their Swimona swag?? Jennifer Lopez's omission will be a wound that is going to take some time to heal for all of us, a snub some had been predicting because of whispers of a misogynistic and reductive POV on Hustlers from voters. It's not just the omission of the performance that infuriates, but the probable reasons for it...

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Podcast: Loving "Little Women"

In this hour long conversation Nathaniel and Murtada welcome special guest Kim Rogers (no relation to Nathaniel) from Head Over Feels to discuss Greta Gerwig's reworking of the classic oft-adapted Little Women starring Saorsie Ronan. Compare and contrast conversations to the 1994 version can't be helped but our opinions differ here and there on the 2019 film's sucess in various areas. We discuss the ambiguous ending, Eliza Scanlan versus Claire Danes, Florence Pugh playing Amy the whole way through and more. Spoilers, obviously, for this 151 year-old story. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Little Women